BP is poised to stun the City tomorrow by nominating Tony Hayward to the board of its Russian business as a consolation prize for being axed as chief executive.

Following its board meeting in London, the oil group will formally announce tomorrow when it unveils second-quarter results that Hayward is standing down from the company's top job in October. It will use his departure to appease public opinion over the Gulf oil spill in the US where Hayward has been dubbed public enemy number one for his gaffe-ridden response to the crisis.

But the expected unveiling of a new job for Hayward – albeit a far less important one as a non-executive director at its Russian joint venture TNK-BP – could risk diluting the public relations impact of his exit from the top.

The surprise send-off to Siberia where BP has a share in the huge Kovykta field has an added twist because Hayward is being replaced as chief executive at BP by Bob Dudley. The softly spoken American was himself the former chief executive of TNK-BP before he was forced out of the country by the Kremlin two years ago in a dispute over control of the company.

Hayward's expected departure was thought to be the ideal way for BP to draw a line under the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – the worst in American history – after it succeeded in capping the gushing well earlier this month.

However, BP will argue it was Hayward who rebuilt bridges with the Russian authorities and keeping him in the corporate family will help tend what is still an important group of oil-producing assets.

Equally, there were fears that putting Dudley at the top of the group could endanger a delicate relationship with Moscow politicians and that Hayward could help smooth the transition.

BP believes nominating Hayward as one of its three directors on the TNK-BP board will not anger politicians in the US, even as he prepares to receive a statutory pay-off of one year's salary – about £1m – and a £10m pension pot built up over 28 years at the company when he leaves the chief executive role. It is thought he could receive around £35,000 a year for his new job at TNK.

It is thought that his departure from the frontline will help restore relations with Washington where the White House and Congress members have been hugely critical of Hayward's handling of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

City investors signalled their approval of reports of Hayward's exit by sending BP shares up 5% to 417p.

In the US, there were few tears being shed as news leaked out about Hayward's impending departure. The prevailing opinion in the country today was good riddance to a man who had fuelled anger with his early attempts to play down the environmental scope of the oil spill and by his stonewalling of questions in Congress.

"He had to go," said Edward Markey, a Democratic congressman who chairs the house committee on energy independence. "He was the leader of this company. He was the one that allowed this company to run up the worst safety record of any oil company in the world."

Markey said he had learned over the weekend of fresh discrepancies in Hayward's testimony to Congress, with evidence that drilling mud pumped into BP's oil well contained dangerous chemicals, contrary to Hayward's claim that it was non-toxic. Markey said he hoped a change at the top would allow BP to "turn the page and become a responsible corporate citizen".

Tyson Slocum, director of energy campaigns at the Washington-based pressure group Public Citizen, described Hayward's departure as "the minimum" needed from BP to begin restoring public confidence: "This company has to show the American public and lawmakers that there is going to be accountability. The buck has to stop somewhere and in a corporation, it stops with the chief executive."

One tabloid paper, the New York Daily News, described Hayward as the "most hated – and clueless – man in America" and described his departure as a "BP top kill that works".

Dan McGinn, a communications expert at Washington-based TMG Strategies, said Hayward had misjudged the public mood from the start of the crisis: "He stumbled out of the box, fell behind badly in the race and could never catch up." A change at the top, McGinn suggested, could begin to turn around perceptions: "The question people are asking BP is 'do you get it? Do you understand why people are so angry and frustrated?'. What they're going to think is 'it's late - but they've got it'."

The White House refused to be drawn on Hayward's position, describing it as "a decision for BP's board."

But the Obama administration has attracted criticism in conservative circles for being too overtly aggressive towards BP's management. Ben Ferguson, a right-wing radio host, said he found it "scary" that BP was severing ties with a chief executive partly because of political pressure: "The government should not be involved in any aspect of this settlement and they obviously are."

Hayward's successor, Dudley, has been praised as "calm, cool and collected" by Ken Feinberg, the influential claims administrator appointed by the White House to arbitrate on compensation disputes arising from the oil spill.

Among people struggling with their livelihoods on the front line of the environmental disaster, the departure of Hayward prompted shrugs. Chris Foss, a boat captain from Port Sulphur, told the Associated Press that it didn't matter much: "Whatever happens with the corporate dudes is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what they are going to do about this mess."